[eng] This dissertation examines how the figures of the African and the African-American
have been translated in the context of the Spanish contemporary television advertising of
products from the 1980s to the second decade of the twenty-first century. By examining
five advertisement samples, it clarifies that the tendency has drastically changed from a
caricatured image in the 1980s advertising, to an improved image in a contemporary
environment of creation responsibility. However, the situation continues to feed a heated
debate on racial issues. This dissertation challenges the argument that contemporary
Spanish television advertising portrays the figures of the above mentioned cultures
without mockery or stereotypes. Data have been collected from a specifically designed
survey on the psychological effects of these portrayals. This survey was based on specific
television commercials broadcast in Spain by the multinational companies Afflelou,
Navidul, Special K, Cola-Cao, and Conguitos. It was addressed to fifty-one people living
in Spain born from the 1930s to the first decade of the twenty-first century and from
different backgrounds. The analysis of the responses in this survey shows three issues: 1)
a variety of perception tendencies depending on age; 2) a relatively improved shift in the
portrayal of these cultures due to a sense of creation responsibility 3) the prevailing
stereotypes that the African and the Afro-descendant are still suffering today.